Splitgate isn’t even out yet, and already it’s surpassing everyone’s expectations. The game – which is sold as Portal via Halo – is the free-to-play first-person shooter that seemingly came from nowhere to take the gaming world by storm. In the month of July alone, the game attracted over an incredible two million downloads. Splitgate, it seems, is going to be big.
The game was initially set for a release date in July, but it became so popular that its servers were hammered on the days leading up to its exit from Early Access, and the developers had to push the release date back. This surge in popularity came from developer 1047 Games gearing up to enable cross-play on July 13, after a huge surge in popualrity, the studio quickly figured out Splitgate’s servers are only capable of handling 65,536 players at any one time.
Since the game’s initial launch into Early Access in May 2019, then, that’s a big jump all at once. Carry on reading to learn everything you need to know about Splitgate.
Splitgate release date
Developer 1047 Games has delayed the official 1.0 launch of Splitgate delayed due to the number of players overwhelming the server capacity. Over August, the game attracted upwards of 10 million downloads across its various platforms, and 1047 now wants to improve server capacity ahead of formally releasing the game.
The studio was previously planning to launch the game in August, but has now delayed that full 1.0 release, although you can play the Beta right now. The game, for the foreseeable, will remain in open beta so the developer can work on “scalability of the game’s backend.” Developer 1047 CEO Ian Proulx has noted that his team is “focused on keeping the game stable for fans, and iterating on the game’s current capacity in order to minimize player wait times.”
The game is available in beta on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam. It is cross-play and cross-gen, and will come to all these platforms with all these features with the launch of version 1.0.
Splitgate on Nintendo Switch?
Splitgate developer 1047 Games has said that a Nintendo Switch port of the game is “part of the vision” although they haven’t yet started development.
During a developer Q&A session on Twitch, 1047 Games’ CEO Ian Proulx said that they hadn’t yet started development on a Switch port but that it is “absolutely part of the vision” and that part of that vision is to get Splitgate “available on everything”.
“We want to be available on mobile, Switch, I mean – everything,” he continued, although when asked about support for Splitgate on Mac, he replied that it was “not on the top of our priorities”.
After these initial comments, Proulx rescinded some of his enthusiasm when pressed on specific points, saying mobile cross-play would take a lot of work and would “maybe” happen.
So, TL;DR? Expect the game to come to Switch eventually, it’s likely it just won’t happen any time in the immediate future.
Splitgate server queue times
THE ANNOUNCEMENT:
– We have acquired $10 million in funding to expand our dev team/increase server capacity!
– Beta is extended, servers will be back tomorrow with planned launch content!
– You will be able to finish your Beta Battlepass!https://t.co/gqPDE5uhj2— Splitgate – Season 0 (@Splitgate) July 26, 2021
As it stands at the time of writing (September 2021), fixes have been implemented to improve server queue times which vastly improved the server wait times with “huge capacity and stability improvements” resulting in an estimated queue time of around five minutes.
At the height of its pre-launch popularity, though, Splitgate had hit such large player numbers that queues to play could take up to 90 minutes, despite increased server capacity.
The developers have previously taken to Twitter to explain the issues they faced when trying to expand server capacity; contrary to popular belief, making the game work isn’t as simple as buying more servers and brute-forcing your way past the problem.
“The rate of growth of our player base is faster than the rate we can increase server capacity. We are working on a long-term solution to greatly increase server capacity to well over 100k concurrent but this takes time.”
Splitgate gameplay modes
The rate of growth of our playerbase is faster than the rate we can increase server capacity. We are working on a long term solution to greatly increase server capacity to well over 100k concurrent but this takes time.
Thanks for being patient <3
— Splitgate – Season 0 (@Splitgate) August 1, 2021
Splitgate is a PvP game that consists of either four-player or two-player squads (depending on your mode) that face off against each other in various modes you’ll likely recognise from its FPS stablemates.
These include, currently: Team Deathmatch, Free-for-All, Domination, King of the Hill, Capture the Flag, and more.
More content is planned once the game hit’s its 1.0 launch, and more Battle Pass items and cosmetics will be introduced to the game in due time, too.
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